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U.S. NEWS Tuesday 3 May 2022
Jill Biden: Resilience of Ukrainian refugees 'inspires me'

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE On May 8, Biden will travel
Associated Press to Kosice and Vysne Nem-
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jill ecke in Slovakia to meet
Biden said she is heading to with refugees, humanitar-
Romania and Slovakia later ian aid workers and local
this week to visit with Ukrai- Slovakians who are sup-
nian families who fled for porting Ukrainian families
their lives after Russia invad- that have sought refuge in
ed their country in hopes Slovakia. She plans to meet
of sending the message, with members of Slovakia's
despite language barriers, government on May 9 be-
"that their resilience inspires fore returning to the United
me." The White House an- States.
nounced late Sunday that President Joe Biden visited
the first lady will spend with Ukrainian refugees
Mother's Day meeting during a stop in Poland in
Ukrainian refugees, most of March.
whom are women and chil- The trip will be the first lady's
dren. second overseas to repre-
The May 8 meeting will take sent the United States by
place in Slovakia. Biden is herself, following her jour-
scheduled to depart Wash- ney to Tokyo last year for
ington late Thursday on a the opening of the delayed
five-day trip that will also First lady Jill Biden speaks at the unveiling of the Met Museum Costume Institute's exhibit "In 2020 Olympic Games. The
take her to Romania. Both America: A Lexicon of Fashion" on Monday, May 2, 2022, in New York. Associated Press trip also will mark her lat-
countries share borders est gesture of solidarity with
with Ukraine, which has "As a mother myself, I can children, have fled Ukraine to meet with U.S. service Ukraine.Four days after
spent the past two months only imagine the grief fami- since Russia invaded its members at Mihail Kogal- Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of
fighting off Russia's military lies are feeling," said Biden, smaller neighbor on Feb. niceau Air Base, a U.S. mili- Ukraine, Biden appeared
invasion. Romania and Slo- a mother of three. "I know 24, according to the U.N. tary installation near the at a White House event
vakia also are NATO mem- that we might not share a High Commissioner for Refu- Black Sea. wearing a face mask em-
bers. language, but I hope that gees. Many have resettled The schedule then takes her broidered with a sunflower,
She discussed the trip Mon- I can convey, in ways so in neighboring countries or to the Romanian capital of Ukraine's national flower.
day while touring a cos- much greater than words, relocated elsewhere in Eu- Bucharest on Saturday to She also invited Ukraine's
tume exhibit at New York's that their resilience inspires rope. meet with government offi- ambassador to the United
Metropolitan Museum of me, that they are not for- Throughout the trip, Biden cials, U.S. Embassy staff, hu- States, Oksana Markarova,
Art in New York, saying she gotten, and that all Ameri- will also meet with U.S. ser- manitarian aid workers and to sit with her during Presi-
would spend the U.S. holi- cans stand with them still." vice members, U.S. Embas- educators who are helping dent Biden's State of the
day dedicated to honor- The trip will mark Biden's lat- sy personnel, humanitarian teach displaced Ukrainian Union address in March
ing mothers with Ukrainian est show of solidarity with aid workers and educators, children. The first lady will and had a sunflower sewn
families who have been Ukraine. the White House said. travel to Slovakia to meet into the sleeve of the co-
displaced by Russian Presi- Nearly 5.5 million Ukraini- After arriving in Romania with staff at the U.S. Embas- balt blue dress she wore for
dent Vladimir Putin's war. ans, mostly women and on Friday, she is scheduled sy in Bratislava, the capital. the occasion.q

Supreme Court rules against Boston in Christian flag case

By MARK SHERMAN temporarily hoists another government, in which case
Associated Press flag. Boston can do whatever it
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Shurtleff and his Camp wants, or private parties like
unanimous Supreme Court Constitution wanted to Shurtleff, Breyer wrote.
ruled Monday that Boston fly a white banner with a "Finally, we look at the ex-
violated the free speech red cross on a blue back- tent to which Boston ac-
rights of a conservative ac- ground in the upper left tively controlled these flag
tivist when it refused his re- corner, called the Christian raisings and shaped the
quest to fly a Christian flag flag, to mark Constitution messages the flags sent.
on a flagpole outside City Day, Sept. 17, in 2017. The answer, it seems, is not
Hall. The city had approved 284 at all. And that is the most
Justice Stephen Breyer consecutive applications salient feature of this case,"
wrote for the court that the to fly flags, usually those of Breyer wrote in an opinion
city discriminated against other nations, before it re- that also riffed on the bru- The American flag, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts flag,
the activist, Harold Shurtleff, jected Shurtleff's because talist architectural style of and the City of Boston flag, from left, fly outside Boston City Hall,
because of his "religious it was a Christian flag. The Boston's City Hall and the Monday, May 2, 2022, in Boston. Associated Press
viewpoint," even though city said he could fly a dif- Siena, Italy-inspired 7-acre
it had routinely approved ferent banner, but Shurtleff plaza on which it sits. speech—though noth- question the Jan. 6 insurrec-
applications for the use of refused, and lower courts Breyer wrote that "the ing prevents Boston from tion at the U.S. Capitol, the
one of the three flagpoles upheld the city's decision. city's lack of meaningful in- changing its policies going outcome of the 2020 elec-
outside City Hall that fly the But the high court said volvement in the selection forward." tion that put President Joe
U.S., Massachusetts and the lower courts and the of flags or the crafting of Shurtleff is a former organiz- Biden in office, the efficacy
Boston flags. city were wrong. The case their messages leads us to er with the John Birch Soci- of COVID-19 vaccines and
Occasionally, the city takes hinged on whether the classify the flag raisings as ety and has used his Camp even who was behind the
down its own pennant and flag-flying is an act of the private, not government, Constitution website to Sept. 11 attacks.q